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"Touch is far more essential than our other senses.… It's ten times stronger than verbal or emotional contact." — Saul Schanberg in A Natural History of the Senses

When used skillfully, touch can be a powerful healing tool in psychotherapy. It can be used in various ways, including in experiential exercises, as a tool for embodiment and resourcing, for accessing underlying wounds and for healing attachment injuries. At the same time, due to its potential misuse and the wounds that many people have around touch, it needs to be used mindfully and carefully, while paying attention to the safety of the relationship with the client and the practitioner’s own energy and intention.

In this introductory workshop we’ll cover the fundamental principles and techniques of Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychology, through focusing on therapeutic relationship and touch. We’ll use mindfulness to explore individual responses to touch, learn how touch or even the reaching out towards touch can be used in various experiential exercises, and have a taste of how to use touch to deepen into core wounds. The workshop will emphasize safety, tracking of the client, and honoring of participants’ own comfort level with this topic.

Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy offers an elegant, comprehensive and highly effective approach to human change. Hakomi combines mindfulness, unique and powerful somatic techniques, and a focus on present experience to access and transform deeply held, life-limiting core beliefs. For over 30 years Hakomi has pioneered and integrated the use of mindfulness in the human change process. It is backed by thousands of hours of clinical applications and research into the neurological underpinnings of mindfulness. Psychotherapists can successfully use Hakomi in a wide range of applications including individual, couples and family therapy and group work. The Hakomi Method also offers cutting-edge skills for coaches, health professionals and others who work to support human change and growth.

Cancellation PolicyCancellations received by email or phone seven days in advance of a 1-day workshop or fourteen days in advance of a 2 or 3-day workshop will receive a full refund minus a $25 administrative fee. There will be no refunds for non-attendance or cancellations received after the cancellation deadline.

Class Schedule

The schedule below applies to both our one-day and two-day workshops:

9:30-11:00

Learning activities

11:00-11:10

Break

11:10-12:30

Learning activities

12:30-1:40

Lunch

1:40-3:00

Learning activities

3:00-3:10

Break

3:10-5:00

Learning activities

Schedule subject to change. All teaching is experiential and includes time for practice and feedback.

Continuing Education

Psychotherapists: This course meets the qualifications for 6 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. CE approval agency: CAMFT. Provider number: 82187. To receive CE credit for this course, participants must attend the entire workshop. As an approved continuing education provider, Hakomi Institute of California is required to award CE credit for instructional time only; no CE credit will be granted for lunches and breaks.

Registration

Please register early as space is limited.

Registration deadline: December 5, 2019

For More Information

For further details, including accommodation of special needs and information about our grievance process, please contact our administrator at 415-839-6788 or contact@hakomiCA.org

Instructor

Gal Szekely, MA, LMFT is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 50301) with a private practice in San Francisco. Gal is passionate about working with couples and individuals on relationship issues and is the founder of The Couples Center, a relationship counseling and education center. An experienced speaker, Gal gives talks all around the Bay Area on the issues of relationships and cultural differences. In addition to a master's degree in Counseling Psychology, Gal also holds a master's in Social-Organizational Psychology and has a background in the business world and as a management consultant. He has also taught a course in somatic couples therapy at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His work is influenced by a long time meditation practice, his appreciation of the body and a multicultural background.